Filtering by Tag: chaturanga

After another great weekend of assisting a teacher training, it's time to look a little deeper at what the shoulders are doing in push-ups or yoga push-ups, chaturangas. It can be extremely difficult to know what's going on behind you, not only because we can't see our shoulder blades, but also because most of the time, no one ever taught us how to do a push-up, other than "do it." It turns out that there's a lot more to it than that!

One of the key players in stabilizing the shoulders in a plank, push-up, or any loaded position, is the serratus anterior. Often thought of as the "superhero muscles," they line the ribs in a serrated fashion, originating at ribs 1-8, and inserting at the medial border of the scapulae. The function of the serratus is to stabilize the scapulae, especially in protraction, meaning that the shoulder blades are wide on the back. What does that look like in real life?

Take a look at this first video of me: I would not claim to be perfection, but I'm comparing two actions that often happen in push-ups.

1. In the first example, as my elbows bend, my shoulders blades glide together. This means the serratus anterior is not helping to stabilize the shoulder. Without fear-mongering, an unstable scapula in regards to push-ups and beyond can be problematic.

2. In the second example, as my elbows bend, I'm attempting to keep the shoulder blades wide on the back, an action called protraction. My serratus is firing to help that happen.

If you don't know what's happening with your shoulder blades, have a friend video you in a push-up, or take the push-up to the wall, and just see what's going on as you bend and straighten your elbows. It's not that your shoulder blades should never come together in retraction, it's that you will be more stable and muscularly engaged if you weight bear in protraction.

Here's another video looking at the actions of protraction and retraction in a weight bear position. I'm trying not to elevate my shoulder blades up towards my ears as I move my scapula on my back, although I'm not always successful at that! (Something to keep working on.) The intention is to build awareness in the back body, start to notice where your scapula are, and see if you can retain the broad/wide scapula position as you move into weight bearing positions like plank, and then progress to a push up.

Last month I went to a yoga class which annoyed the heck out of me. The second posture of the sequence was full wheel (a deep backbend) followed by an optional handstand, which was just for starters, followed by a Taylor Swift dance break midway. These things were all terrifying in and of themselves, but the worst of it was when the teacher said that "chaturangas in a yoga class are like clowns in a clown car-the more you can fit in, the better." I don't always do (or teach) multiple chaturangas in a yoga class, which can leave some students perplexed. Why? Let's start with what chaturanga, as a yoga asana, is.

This posture is essentially a yoga push up.

Our environment is conspiring to keep you slouched, head forward, chest tight, and with weak shoulders. Your yoga practice may be making that worse!

It's basically a half lowered down push up, but with a fancy sanskrit name. It occurs in the traditional Sun Salutation sequence, and can either be followed by upward facing dog, cobra, etc. As a strengthening pose, it focuses on pecs, anterior deltoid, and triceps, an area that is usually overly short (and often weak) in most people to begin with. Because of a combination of different factors, repeating this posture without strengthening the opposing muscles can create an imbalance in the shoulders, especially if the shoulder blades are not stabilized by the serrates anterior in the lowering phase. In addition, the transition to upward dog can be extremely challenging in and of itself. By emphasizing the front of the body, which is already restricted, most yoga asana ignores the posterior shoulder muscles, such as the posterior deltoids, the rhomboids, and the external rotators of your shoulder (infraspinatus, teres minor). Musicians in particular, tend to be weak in these areas from repetitive practice and lack of cross training. There are also consequences for wrists unused to bearing full weight in full extension (read my thoughts on that), as well as exarcerbating restriction in the front of the chest.

I love this image from Jason Ray Brown-it's not that chaturanga is bad. It's mostly that we're overtargeting one side of the body and ignoring the rest, which can be a recipe for disaster if yoga is your primary movement pattern!

What can you do instead? If you are someone who practices a style of yoga which might feature 25-50 chaturangas in each class, consider laying off of a few here and there, especially if you have past or current shoulder issues. Sometimes the movement gets accelerated to a point that quality of movement is compromised, which is not ideal either. I've restricted my chaturangas to 10 or less in a class, and added strengthening poses for the back of the shoulders and lats, as well as some weight training and hanging from a bar. (Also, look at what is happening in the your shoulder blades as you lower- if there is a lot of retraction happening, your serratus is not helping you to stabilize and create some external rotation.) Here's a quote from yoga teacher Jenni Rawlings, which summarizes my feelings completely.

One of the main reasons people practice yoga is to create more balance in the body. Chaturanga is a pose, however, that when done repetitively, actually moves us away from balance and toward imbalance. 

— Jenni Rawlings

Before you throw it all out though, ask: am I doing pulling motions outside of yoga? In addition to lowering myself towards the floor, can I push myself up? How many chaturangas am I doing in comparison to other shoulder strengthening work? How many times a week do I practice a chaturanga heavy practice? As with all movements, the question is not whether the movement is "bad." It's whether or not your body is prepared to handle the load, magnitude, and frequency of the action. It's also about whether your shoulder is strong in many ranges of motion to support your work on and OFF the mat!